Ash Wednesday fail... the Catholic teacher edition

I teach preschool at a small Catholic school. I love my job, and I love being able to teach young students about God. There is a reason I chose to teach young children, and I think that I am usually pretty good at explaining things to 4-year-olds. Not on Ash Wednesday. For the 2nd year in a row I completely failed at teaching Ash Wednesday to my students!

Last year on Ash Wednesday I was explaining to my students what to expect at Mass that afternoon, and I said, "The priest will put a cross on your forehead." Before I could make it any further a student yelled out, "I don't want to die!" and suddenly half the class was in hysterics, worried they were going to die. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to calm down the room of 4-year-olds. I barely even taught anything else that day about Ash Wednesday or Lent. Later I found out that one of the students thought I meant that the Priest would be nailing a cross to their foreheads.... yeah I'd be scared of that too. That evening I sent an email to all the parents in my class apologizing and explaining why their children were now worried about dying. Fortunately, the parents were kind and thought it was funny. A few even told me that their children were really excited about Ash Wednesday and Lent after my class, so I must have done an okay job calming them down. I was determined to do better this year......

This year as I taught the students what to expect at Mass on Ash Wednesday I said, "The priest will draw a cross on your forehead", as I demonstrated tracing an invisible cross on a student's forehead. So far so good. Next I said the Priest would say, "Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return." One of the students asked what that meant, and I casually said, "just that some day everyone will die." Once again I had a few students suddenly terrified of dying, and telling me that they didn't want to die and that they'd miss their parents. I reminded them that Heaven is a wonderful place to go and that they didn't need to worry about dying right now, and then I quickly just moved on to Lenten prayers and preparation for Easter. The good news is that this was a significant improvement from last year. Maybe next year I can teach this topic without any tears.....

Teaching Religion to little ones can definitely be tricky. Moms, teachers, wise friends.... any ideas or suggestions for introducing subjects like Ash Wednesday, Lent, the Crucifixion, death???